new polls show governor romney and president obama neck in neck in the race for president. joining me now from washington, tom friedman of the "new york times." >> great to be with you, charlie. thank you. >> rose: so tell me what you thought of the governor's speech today and did you learn more about his foreign policy positions from it? >> well, you know, i'm -- it's always good to see governor romney, any of the candidates, taking foreign policy seriously. and, you know, this speech certainly does that. but underlying it, charlie, i'd say are several criticisms i would have. one is there's this basically republican trope that romney has fallen back on which is kind of the old one: democrats are wimps basically, and republicans are the daddy party and they're tough and obama's basically a democrat of whim. >> rose: right. >> and the facts just don't bear it out. so that's kind of the underlying theme. also there's a -- i think just a straight out false statement that no trade agreements have been concluded under obama. i believe he signed three of them, including one with